I've been happy with my Squeezebox for a long time but it's now clear that using a good USB DAC is superior in terms of sound quality.

I'm running JPlay on an old laptop with Windows 8 as the OS. Now I want to bring back remote control to the set-up, and have a few questions.

1 Can I use a cheapo tablet to control the laptop? I only want the tablet for this function so don't need bells and 'whistles'. I see them on Ebay for around 50 UKP and upwards.

2 How does the connection work? Is it through Bluetooth, and if so how do I know if my old laptop has Bluetooth?

3 If the laptop does not have Bluetooth, is it as simple as adding a Bluetooth dongle?

4 Which is the best app to use on the tablet (I'm running JPlay inside of Foobar2000).

i2k92

27th September 2012 02:07 PM

I've tried almost any foobar remote control for android but I consider Foobarcon is the best. I use it to control foobar + jplay on my headless Win 7 PC. I've tested it on Samsung Tab, Asus Transformer, Samsung Gio and some chinese cheapo android phone with sero problem.

It uses TCP/IP to connect to foobar, so you'll need a wifi router and jplay's hibernate mode is a no no. Your laptop can connect to the router via wifi or LAN cable. You'll need to install foo http control and Foobarcon template file on your foobar folder to make it work.

Andrew, he has tried a small piece of software on a number of Android devices (small computer-like devices such as a tablet or mobile phone) and it works OK with all of them to remotely control Foobar/JPlay on another computer.

I thought the Android device directly 'spoke' with the computer but it looks like it has to 'speak' to it via a wireless router, something that I was hoping to avoid, but it looks like wi-fi is going to be the only way to go eventually.

i2k92

27th September 2012 11:27 PM

You're welcome Nuuk.
If you want to use a tablet, there's no way to avoid wireless connection, be it wifi or bluetooth. I've never experimented with bluetooth as none of my computer have it.

I use an iPad with iTunes remote app controlling a laptop running iTunes. All via wifi of course. Works great

Iamimdoc

20th October 2012 08:02 PM

Remote control

Install a VNC server on the music player PC. Several choices - most are free

On a laptop/iPad install a VNC client. Free or cheap

Configure. The remote computer can now control the desktop of the music playing computer

On an iPad I have found remoter VNC works well.

If you have a Mac laptop for the remote controller computer, VNC client is built into the os under Finder. Goto to server. VNC:// the ipaddress of the music player computer.

Regards

pcb121055

23rd October 2012 02:39 AM

I had good results with "Foobar2000 Controller". Communicates reliably from my galaxyS via wifi... moderate latency. I now use HDMI to connect the pc to my tv and a small Logitech K400 wireless keyboard (good but cheap). Both methods work just fine. I just wanted the bigger screen and other computer-based activities available while listening.